Exam question 3 · Andersen's Tales, The Puppet-Showman: a puppet-man wishes…

Which phrase best characterises the puppet-man's own assessment of his present state?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: phrase, puppet man · What happens: characteris, assess · To what, where: own assessment, present state

This is exam question 3 of lesson 955 «Andersen's Tales, The Puppet-Showman: a puppet-man wishes his dolls alive and learns to be content» of the books course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Which	which	DET	PronType=Int	2 phrase	det
2	phrase	phrase	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 characterises	nsubj
3	best	well	ADV	Degree=Sup	4 characterises	advmod
4	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 man	det
6	puppet	puppet	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 man	compound
7	-	-	PUNCT	_	6 puppet	punct
8	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 assessment	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 man	case
10	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 assessment	amod
11	assessment	assessment	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 characterises	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	15 state	case
13	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 state	nmod:poss
14	present	present	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 state	amod
15	state	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 assessment	nmod
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	characteris	present	which phrase	the puppet man's own assessment of phrase's present state				well property	tree rules
2	assess		the puppet man	phrase's present state					nom assessment «cognition transitive»: poss=agent of=patient

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

The options

Option 1

He describes himself as a weary and unlucky traveller

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 describes	nsubj
2	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 describes	obj
4	as	as	ADP	_	9 traveller	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 traveller	det
6	weary	weary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 traveller	amod
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 unlucky	cc
8	unlucky	unlucky	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 weary	conj
9	traveller	traveller	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 describes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	describe	present	He	himself = he				as a weary traveller	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent himself=Theme as traveller=Attribute

Option 2

He describes himself as a reluctant and indifferent director

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 describes	nsubj
2	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 describes	obj
4	as	as	ADP	_	9 director	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 director	det
6	reluctant	reluctant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 director	amod
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 indifferent	cc
8	indifferent	indifferent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 reluctant	conj
9	director	director	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 describes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	describe	present	He	himself = he				as a reluctant director	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent himself=Theme as director=Attribute

Option 3

He describes himself as a man of modest means

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 describes	nsubj
2	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 describes	obj
4	as	as	SCONJ	_	9 means	mark
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 man	det
6	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 means	nsubj
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 modest	case
8	modest	modest	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 man	nmod
9	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 describes	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	describe	present	He	himself = he					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent himself=Theme
2	mean	present	a man of modest						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

He describes himself as the happiest man in the world

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 describes	nsubj
2	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 describes	obj
4	as	as	ADP	_	7 man	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 man	det
6	happiest	happy	ADJ	Degree=Sup	7 man	amod
7	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 describes	obl
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 world	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 world	det
10	world	world	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 man	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	describe	present	He	himself = he				as the happiest man in the world	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent himself=Theme as man=Attribute

Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/955-pg27200-part166/e3/